Two of everything?

[Mr. Brooks]

Hey guys, I'm planning a large tank, 540 gallons with a large prop tank. I've heard so many horror stories of chillers failing, pumps failing, skimmers failing, calcium reactors failing etc.

I already have equipment for about half the volume of water. Instead of selling everything and upgrading equipment, I was thinking about just doubling up. Two skimmers, two chillers, two return pumps, two calcium reactors. What do you guys think of this idea? Is this overkill or a good idea? If you were starting from scratch is this how you'd do it? Or would you buy equipment properly sized for the volume.

[Shane Hoffman]

You would consume more power this way. Also If you have a failure you would have a back up that can only handle half of your load. I would recommend getting the right equipment for the job. I also am one of those guys that has a skimmer that is rated for twice my tank volume....so who know maybe I am just paranoid.....

[Moser]

David Saxby has 3 of everything. If one of your 2 goes wrong, it's for life saving prposes, not to run your tank for long periods, so if you can design doubling up into your system, go ahead!.

Mo

[Lightsluvr]

I'd also recommend getting the proper size high quality equipment rather than "twinkies" of smaller rated items...

The only duplication I did was ATO pump (Tunze) and having the same pump for my return and closed loop. I keep a spare which can be pressed into service in either capacity... (Sanjay's suggestion)

LL

[Elliott]

Agreed, I wouldn't bother with not properly sized equipment, however two skimmers has it's advantages of running one wet, the other dry, but I wouldn't want to clean them! some things I'd suggest:

1. keeping a spare return pump or even better, plumbing two in series
2. plumbed in backup chiller
3. power back up, auto start generator
4. several small heaters instead of one large one, and don't use the heater's controllers
5. good controller (example: Neptune Systems) with alarms (email alerts, texting)
6. water detection device on floor under tank and in sump room

[Mr. Brooks]

The stuff I have isn't really dinky. I guess the main piece of equipment I'm debating on is the skimmer.

I have an ATB internal Deluxe 10.5 skimmer.

Question is, do I sell the ATB and upgrade to say.. a Deluxe 18? Or do I simply buy another Deluxe 10.5 (if I run two skimmers I want them to match lol). This is the main item I'm debating on. It'd be much easier on the wallet to buy the 10.5.

I think I'd like to run two return pumps just because it sounds like a good idea to me.

I'll probably end up with one big chiller, seeing as how I don't own a chiller at the moment. Hopefully it'll only be used as a back up. I'll try to utilize a controller and fans for temp control. The chiller will have it's own seperate controller and run on a different circuit.

I'll be using Vortech battery back ups in case of power failure.

[Eric the half-bee]

I have a main circ pump on backup.